Vehicle Package Retrieval With Route-Based Staging Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing delivery systems are inefficient due to time-intensive sorting and packaging processes, frequent item handling, and limited capacity of delivery vehicles, which lead to slow and labor-intensive delivery methods.
Innovation Solution
An item delivery system integrated into a delivery vehicle with a dispenser that moves items from a storage area to a staging area based on destination proximity, allowing for easy access and retrieval by operators without entering the cargo area, utilizing an array of storage channels and handles to facilitate efficient item handling and staging.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional delivery methods are used with limited capacity vehicles, then items can be delivered to customers, but the delivery process becomes long and slow with frequent handling
Solution Approach 1:
The delivery system is segmented into multiple compartments within the vehicle, each dedicated to specific delivery locations or routes. This allows simultaneous organization and access to multiple items without requiring the vehicle to make multiple trips or reorganize contents, thereby reducing delivery time and handling frequency.
Solution Approach 2:
Items are pre-sorted and pre-positioned in the appropriate compartments before the delivery route begins. This preliminary organization eliminates the need for time-consuming sorting and rehandling during the delivery process, directly improving delivery speed and reducing overall delivery time.
2Ease of manufacture
If items are sorted and packaged in a warehouse facility with upstream operations, then items can be prepared for delivery, but the process becomes time intensive with duplicative operations
Solution Approach 1:
The sorting function is extracted from the warehouse environment and integrated directly into the delivery vehicle. Items are sorted into specific compartments within the vehicle itself, eliminating the need for time-intensive warehouse sorting operations and duplicative handling between warehouse and vehicle.
Solution Approach 2:
The sorting and packaging operations are merged with the loading process. Items are sorted and positioned in their final delivery compartments during the loading phase, combining multiple operations into one efficient process that reduces total sorting time and eliminates duplicative steps.
3Ease of operation
If delivery vehicles with limited capacity are used, then vehicles can navigate to customer locations, but items must be moved and handled frequently
Solution Approach 1:
The vehicle cargo space is segmented into multiple accessible compartments that can be independently accessed. This segmentation allows operators to retrieve items from specific compartments without moving or handling items in other compartments, reducing overall handling frequency while maintaining ease of access to delivered items.
Data Source
AI summary
A cargo area within a delivery vehicle can include a storage area storing items for destinations along a route. A staging area may be accessible from inside and outside of the cargo area. A dispenser within the cargo area may provide item transfer from the storage area and to the staging area. For example, the dispenser may include a carriage for aligning an extendable and retractable arm operable to transfer an item hanging from a channel onto the arm and from the arm to the staging area. A controller may access route information about proximity to a delivery destination, access item information about an item assigned for that delivery destination, and cause the dispenser to move the assigned item from the storage area to the staging area for making the assigned item accessible from outside the cargo area in response to the proximity to the delivery destination.